Statewide Iowa — Republican Senator Joni Ernst warns the escalating tariffs President Trump is threatening to impose on Mexican imports would derail the U.S. Mexico Canada Agreement.
Ernst says Mexico must “step up and do its part” to stop the “stream” of asylum seekers crossing into the United States, but she says the livelihoods of Iowa farmers and producers are at stake if the president imposes new tariffs on Mexico.
Mexico and Canada are Iowa’s top export markets and Ernst says ratification of the USMCA would provide “much-needed certainty” in the ag economy.
Iowa’s other Republican senator, Chuck Grassley, has also said new tariffs on Mexico would “seriously jeopardize passage” of the trade deal with America’s North American partners. Grassley said in a statement that Trump’s tariff threat toward Mexico was “a misuse of presidential authority and counter to congressional intent.”
